Dr. Paloniitty is an environmental law scholar specialized in science and law questions. Dr. Paloniitty has probed environmental law on all levels, however focusing on the EU and comparative environmental law. Their doctoral dissertation, ‘The (In)compatibility Between Adaptive Management and Law—Regulating Agricultural Runoff in the EU’ passed with distinction from the Faculty of Law, University of Helsinki in 2018, and they also received the ‘Defendant of the Year’ award from the Finnish Lawyers' Association (Suomalainen Lakimiesyhdistys).

Dr. Paloniitty is a Governing Board Member at the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law, representing Western Europe in this globally speaking largest society for environmental law scholars. Dr. Paloniitty is also Associate Editor of Environmental Policy and Law and was Co-Editor of Ympäristöjuridiikka (Finnish Environmental Law Review) for 2019-2020. Dr. Paloniitty has co-edited a comparative Special Issue on scientific knowledge in judicial review (2018) and is currently co-editing a comparative volume on environmental principles and scientific uncertainty (Hart, upcoming 2022). Dr. Paloniitty also convened an international research seminar ‘Are Climate Impacts Environmental Impacts? Court Review of Complex Scientific Knowledge and Impacts’ in Helsinki in February 2020. Paloniitty teaches International Environmental Governance in Global Governance Law program and supervises Bachelor's theses on environmental law,  Master's theses at HELSUS Co-Creation Lab, and two doctoral candidates.